Rhetorical Analysis

On The New Yorker, an article titled, “The Gig Economy Celebrates Working Yourself
to Death” was written by Jia Tolentino, a staff writer at The New Yorker. Her writings were
heavily inspired by the story of Mary, a nine month pregnant woman working as a Lyft driver.
As the author wrote, the woman had several contractions while transporting clients around before
rushing to the hospital to give birth. After concluding the story, Jia informs the audience that
incidences such as those are a result of a corrupt system. The author goes on, referencing similar
stories of work-dedicated action to conclude to the idea that our economy has grown to value
unhealthy lifestyles and disguise them as desirable qualities such as self reliance and success. Jia
states that as members of this society, us workers are victims to the modern day work ethic that
has poisoned the unity that connects success to self-care. Throughout this article, Jia uses the
rhetorical devices: pathos, ethos, and logos to strengthen her claims.

Jia appeals to her audience by using pathos to connect on a humane level, using a story of
a pregnant woman for sympathy. As cited in her writing, “Mary is an exemplar of hard work and
dedication—the latter being, perhaps, hard to come by in a company that refuses to classify its
drivers as employees. Mary’s entrepreneurial spirit—taking ride requests while she was in
labor!” In the text, the author mentions Mary being pregnant/in labor while also describing her
company as being cruel. By doing this, Jia appeals towards women as they are able to relate or
understand the difficulties of being pregnant. Using negative words when mentioning the
company, and positive ones for Mary, it also helps clarify which side is villainous. Looking
back, Jia also appeals to workers as she writes, “It does require a fairly dystopian strain of
doublethink for a company to celebrate how hard and how constantly its employees must work to
make a living, given that these companies are themselves setting the terms.” In this quote, the
author states that the unrealistic expectations from companies are applauded as workers push
themselves to the extreme. I feel that with this, Jia acknowledges the strain workers are put
through and reassures them that the expectations that are set upon them shouldn’t be desirable or
striven for. At the same time. As she grazes the topic of pregnancy and work ethic, it strengthens
her points towards pathos because of that delicate subject being attacked by an enemy many
despise.

Jia also uses ethos in a sense through the credibility of marketing techniques done by
Fiverr as well as referencing the book, “A Cool Million” later in her article. Referenced from the
passage, “Fiverr, which had raised a hundred and ten million dollars in venture capital by
November, 2015, has more about the “In Doers We Trust” campaign on its Web site.” From this
quote, it proves that Jia had put forth effort into researching what she was against. By doing this,
it appeals to the general audience who may lean more towards actual facts rather than emotional
claims that were previously stated. It makes the author sound professional and showcases her
diverse thinking as she goes on to directly quote the advertisement. Jia continues on, picking out
flaws in the advertisement and coming to the conclusion that ‘cannibalistic nature of the gig
economy is dressed up as an aesthetic’. Similarity, near the end of her article she quotes the book
by Lemuel Pitkin. In the book it tells the story of a enthousicatic, hard-worker who tries to save
his mother’s house but ends up crumbling to the economic system. As the author states,”... And
tells his audience that, through Pitkin’s hard work and enthusiastic martyrdom, “America became
again American.” By using this quote specifically, it illustrates both Jia and Pitkin that they share
similar views. I find this impactful because it shows that Jia’s opinion isn’t exclusive to her, but
to many others. It shows that there are other people who have similar beliefs and ponders the
question of whether or not the economic system is viable.

Jia’s article also contains elements of logos. However, her use of the rhetorical device is
more so to strengthen her argument with pathos. In her article, she points out flaws in the system
such as wages and the overall mindset of the community. An example of this, “found, in 2015,
that Lyft drivers in Chicago net about eleven dollars per trip.” Although this information can be
seen as minor, when put together with the quote, “Or maybe Mary kept accepting riders because
the gig economy has further normalized the circumstances in which earning an extra eleven
dollars can feel more important than seeking out the urgent medical care that these quasi-
employers do not sponsor.” By giving facts about a topic and then supporting it with an opinion,
I found it to be successful. By combining the two rhetorical devices, it helped Jia’s claim be
more believable because the way she shared the information seemed logical. She provided actual
facts and then countered them with an opinion that many can empathize with. Jia goes on to say
that the way our economy has evolved, has also evolved our mindset. Although Jia’s use of logos
is used as a support for the other rhetorical devices, it is still seen as successful because her target
audience is strongly impacted more with pathos.

In conclusion, the author makes a point that the economy has promoted harsh work ethic
extremely so that it has become desirable to society. She continues on, using the rhetorical
devices pathos, ethos, and support from logos to share her opinion on this poisonous situation.
She continues on to write about the flaws and misguided advertisements that companies promote
in order to create a hard working culture. Jia appealed appropriately to her audience by
maintaining a theme of pathos in her article. As her target audience was strongly affected by
emotions, stories about Mary and mental health helped strengthen her claims.

Erin Ballard: You had amazing word choice throughout the whole article! It was awesome!
Don’t forget to link the article you analyzed at the top. You could look at some of the
rhetorical analysis examples we looked at to see how they formatted it. Also, when
referencing the author, you should use their last name, so Tolentino instead of Jia. Each of
your body paragraphs started with the author’s name. I think switching it up would be a
good idea, so maybe try saying “the author” one time or rewording it so the author’s name
comes later in the sentence. I also think putting your paragraph about logos before your
paragraph about ethos would be a good idea because when you talk about logos, you
combine it with pathos. It would make more sense if both mentions of pathos were closer
together. I liked your summary in the first paragraph, but I think even more could be added
to it. I also think your thesis could be even stronger. Maybe go into a little more detail about
how each rhetorical device is used. Lastly, your conclusion could be more detailed. Go into
a bit more depth when restating the author’s use of rhetorical devices. I know this can feel
repetitive, but if you try to reword things I think it will improve that paragraph. Overall, I
really enjoyed reading your analysis. It was very interesting and informative!